Quality Inn Latrobe Convention Centre Traralgon

Woke to a fine day, although not overly warm. Had a look at Metung, near to Lakes Entrance. Maybe that would have been a better place to stay last night, but never mind… First stop was a country town, Maffra, which advertised a motor museum. It was a very interesting collection of vehicles and memorabilia. Again, one of those places we would have liked to have stayed at for longer.

Had a McDonald ...

... pressies Pete and I caught the train out to his Grandma's place for Christmas Eve Hungarian style with the rest of his family. Christmas Day was a healthy 28C and gorgeous blue skies. This year I'd agreed that I would show the Reisigner family a 'Pommie' christmas complete with a full english christmas dinner. After a few gin and tonics and plenty of stressing, Pete and I finally managed to negotiate his mum's oven and serve up a full Pommie christmas dinner. Between ...

It is certainly hard to find a cheap internet cafe, luckily the hostel we are staying in right now has a computer. We have seen a lot the last few days, it has actually almost been like a movie. Two days ago we started to head down to Melbourne, so we bought a tent and asked a local where a good site was. He told us about a free camp site that we should check out. He didn't tell us that he was sending us to paradise. It is impossible to explain what we ...

Corryong - Tallangatta - Mt Beauty - Bright - Bairnsdale - Moe Back. In one piece. Thank god. That was the ************gest, *****iest back breaker ever. I can't feel my limbs. The last two hours have just been hellish - cold, dark, dangerous and full of tentative aggression, but after slogging it out for almost seven hours through the ...

well i dont know if i;m excited or nervous. bit of both, once i get going i'll be excited. seems to take 2 months to get organised to go!! so much to think of and i have never travelled to a foreign country so am a bit nervous about the language. being a true aussie they probably wont understand me anyway. anyway here goes!

... town - it is now the local toy library and weight watchers hall. We then followed the Main Ridge Road along for a while and made our way via various back roads through some lovely rolling hills and dairy country, back via Mirboo (very small - 2 houses), and some other place to Leongatha - Ted thought we were on another misguided tour, but I knew where we were, more or less. And so, back to the ...

... traveled, and the sign posts had been bent and twisted out of shape - perhaps by last night's wind, but more likely by vandals. So we returned to Traralgon by the same route as we went, and got back here to the park about 3:30pm. We have tied up the TV antenna so I can watch the Einstein Factor tonight - my only regular TV program!! And now I need to get dinner on the go or Ted will not be happy.

As a new inexperienced vanner, I was more than just nervous as we started out - what if the brake controller isn't set right (like the last few times), what if I can't get the van into the site in the caravan park? So it was an exhausting first day, but as it turned out, all went OK. We are here in our site, booked in until next Monday. Overnight, it rained ...

... touring Test teams traditionally begin their tour) and he had hired a car anyway so we joined him in a three day drive along the coast. Also squeezed into the car were a couple of not fairly normal English fans: Dave-o and Graeme from Cheltenham. Dave-o is a fully paid-up member of the Barmy Army and likes to sing. Graeme is vocally quieter but likes to cough and smell. So the five of us crammed into the car with Dave-o singing about ...

The second chapter of our road trip from Sydney to Melbourne continues . . . 20/4/04 A nice warm sunny morning greeted us as we donned our day-glo lycra for a jog around Lakes Entrance, with a half hour skip through the undergrowth that separates the river from the sea, and back at the van after a hosing down we relaxed in the early morning heat for a breakfast of melon and crumpets (sounds a bit rude?) Off we set once more on the Princes Highway, travelling west towards ...